1. Field of the Invention
This application relates generally to a method and system for extracting information from a computer-readable code and, more specifically, to a method and system for automatically recognizing a standard with which a computer-readable code conforms and extracting information pertaining to a substance utilized in providing health care to a patient according to the standard recognized.
2. Description of Related Art
Drugs and other medicinal substances to be administered to patients receiving medical attention are commonly delivered in vials or other suitable containers. An anesthesiologist, surgeon, treating physician, nurse, or other authorized party can draw the medicinal substance from such containers ahead of a time when the medicinal substance is to be administered to the patient. Several containers of each medicinal substance may be stocked in a pharmacy maintained at healthcare facilities to ensure the availability of the medicinal substances when needed. However, the inventory of medicinal substances maintained by the pharmacy varies as the medicinal substances are administered. Further, many medicinal substances are habit forming and prone to abuse. Thus, detailed records are maintained by the pharmacy to monitor and replenish depleted inventories when necessary and to detect misappropriated medicinal substances.
Traditional record-keeping systems have required a pharmacist or other technician to manually enter medicinal substances received by the pharmacy into a database. Upon receipt of the medicinal substances, the technician has traditionally been required to read the documentation accompanying the medicinal substances to manually identify the medicinal substances received. Such documentation has also commonly included additional information such as the quantity of the containers, the concentration of the medicinal substances, and other pertinent information expressed in human-readable alphanumeric characters.
But such record-keeping systems are laborious and prone to human error. The alphanumeric characters may be small, making it difficult for the technician to properly read all of the pertinent information. Further, the information about the medicinal substances may be expressed in a variety of different units of measurement, causing confusion on the part of the technician. Thus, technicians may erroneously read or misplace a decimal point, or make a mistake concerning the unit of measurement when taking inventory of the medicinal substances. Further, poor handwriting by the technician entering the medicinal substances into the pharmacy's inventory can lead to errors at a later date when the medicinal substances are to be administered to patients.
More recently, attempts have been made to apply computer-readable codes on documentation accompanying the medicinal substances. The computer-readable code typically encodes the name of the medicinal substance. To identify the medicinal substance a scanner or other compatible computer peripheral is employed to read the computer-readable code and extract the name of the corresponding medicinal substance. A few jurisdictions have established a standard format for the computer-readable code used for this purpose, but the standards established vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Thus, a system adapted to read the code according to one standard, will not operate properly to read the code adhering to another standard, limiting such systems for use in a particular jurisdiction. And when supplies of a particular medicinal substance are short in one jurisdiction, it is common to order that medicinal substance from another jurisdiction, possibly one adhering to a different standard. When this occurs, entering the medicinal substance into the pharmacy's inventor and otherwise documenting the medicinal substance requires the manual recognition and entry of the pertinent information described above as being susceptible to human error.